Introducing ScalePad Initiatives

The Digital Maturity Index™ gives you a view of where your clients are at, and Insights highlight key issues. The key to creating change is to take action on those issues, and we’ve made it easy with Initiatives. 

Our in-platform Product Guide has operational notes on how to use the Initiatives functionality in greater detail (if you’re signed into ScalePad, click here to jump to the appropriate section of the Product Guide). Here’s where to start to learn more: 

• What is ScalePad Initiatives?
• What can I do with Initiatives?
• How do I start creating an Initiative?
• What gets sent out to clients?
• Can I set different prices for different assets I am proposing in an Initiative?
• Can I add recurring costs to the budget for initiatives?
• Can I change the name of the assets I am proposing in the proposal?
• What’s next for ScalePad Initiatives?

‍

What is ScalePad Initiatives?

ScalePad Initiatives is the tool that enables you to take instant action with your clients against critical asset performance issues and risks. It serves as a communication layer that enables you to create, publish, and deliver proposals directly from the ScalePad platform to your clients.

‍

What can I do with ScalePad Initiatives?

Initiatives lets you take the most obvious infrastructure challenges that exist — the ones already identified with Insights — and convert them into templated, client-ready proposals with just a few clicks. We know MSPs are always time-constrained; that’s why Initiatives was built to be extremely time-efficient in getting client approval for incremental, budget-friendly improvements. 

Here’s a brief picture of those actions and the workflow that begins when you click Create Initiative:

• Edit (or just use) pre-built templates, or customize your own. Our pre-defined templates make communicating Initiatives from your team to clients easy, fast, and consistent.
• Send proposals to clients at the click of a button. Execute a quick response to asset management issues by actioning risks immediately as they’re uncovered.
• Client acceptance is just as easy — also at the click of a button
• Track and manage Initiatives in the ScalePad platform
• Measure your success and watch each client’s Digital Maturity Index score rise 

Initiatives streamline the proposal process by foregoing formal meetings and the associated preparation through an automated workflow.

‍

How do I start creating an Initiative?

Initiatives are created from Insights into client-level potential problem assets — nothing manual required. Start by accessing the Client dashboard, and reviewing insights. Here’s how to get there from the new Strategy dashboard after viewing a list of high-risk servers:

‍

‍

Let’s assume you’ve been reviewing several Insights for a client. You focus on a High-Risk insight for old servers without warranty coverage. Once selected, you create an initiative to propose to replace these servers with the client, which populates the listed assets in a basic initiative view.

Here are the steps to do that:

• Click into the desired insight you want to take action on
• From the detailed Insight Asset Console, click the blue Create Initiative button.  
• From the ‘Create an Initiative’ dialog, add a name to properly title the initiative and click ‘Create Initiative’. For example, enter ‘Server replacement and warranty renewal’.
  

This then brings you into the details. Target dates are optional, but you’ll definitely want an executive summary explaining to the client, in simple terms, why it’s important that they replace these problematic assets in a timely manner (pro tip: use our pre-defined templates to make this consistent, quick, and easy). 

Our Product Guide will walk you through the steps, or just jump right in and try it out. Give it a try!

‍

What gets sent out to clients?

Here’s a sample proposal so you can see the basic elements. This is what you’ll see when you preview a published proposal:

‍

‍

• Title — in this example, we’ve called the proposal “Urgent Server Replacement.”
• Timeline — the timeline is optional, but there’s value in adding a start and end date to show your client when you intend to take action on this initiative.
• Executive summary — this is verbatim from our template. 
• Investment — we’ve included a single line item, noting the approximate investment required from the client to replace the two servers.
• Assets — these are the assets identified as ready for replacement when the Initiative was first created. 

Once the proposal is ready, there two methods you can use to send it:

     1. Click Send to Client to attach a link with a customizable message to your clients directly through ScalePad. 

     2. Copy a publicly-accessible link of the proposal to your clipboard and send via your preferred client communication channel.

Regardless of the method you chose, the outcome remains the same: your client clicks the link and sees what we’ve shown above. When they hit Accept Proposal , you'll be notified in ScalePad and you can start planning implementation. Chalk one up in the win column!

‍

Can I set different prices for different assets I am proposing in an Initiative?

While you can specify any line items, they are not displayed at the asset level. 

‍

Can I add recurring costs to the budget for initiatives?

Initiatives do not differentiate between one-time and recurring costs, but you can specify this in the line item name.

‍

Can I change the name of the assets I am proposing in the proposal?

ScalePad pulls in asset names from your integrations, so you would have to change the name at the source.

‍

What’s next for ScalePad Initiatives?

While there’s a ton of amazing functionality available in Initiatives now right out of the box, we’re excited about what’s coming soon in the coming weeks and months. Plans are already in place to optimize workflows further:

• More pre-defined templates — you don’t need to write like Hemingway to get results right away.
• Alternative workflows for assembling assets in an initiative — MSPs need flexibility in how they operate to maximize efficiency.
• Automating Initiatives for ScalePad warranties — again, another workflow optimization opportunity that will make your team that much more efficient.

‍

If you’re already a ScalePad partner, simply sign in and start using the Initiatives today. If you are not a ScalePad partner yet, sign up today or book a demo with our Partner Development team.